China’s tex­tile ex­ports to Cen­tral Asia, Rus­sia in­crease

URUMQI—Tex­tile and gar­ment ex­ports to Cen­tral Asia and Rus­sia via ports in Xin­jiang Uygur Au­ton­o­mous Re­gion have in­creased by more than 60 per­cent from the same pe­riod last year. China has ex­ported 16.57 bil­lion yuan (about 2.5 bil­lion U.S. dol­lars) worth of tex­tiles and gar­ments through ports in Xin­jiang, ac­cord­ing to the lat­est statis­tics re­leased by Urumqi Cus­toms.

The data show that 70 per­cent of ex­ports went to Kyr­gyzs­tan and Kaza­khstan, with the for­mer rank­ing first. Fol­low­ing the China-pro­posed Belt and Road ini­tia­tive and re­gional eco­nomic devel­op­ment, Xin­jiang, which borders eight coun­tries and boasts 29 na­tional ports, has grown into a trad­ing hub for gar­ments, shoes, and daily ne­ces­si­ties. China has long been a top tex­tile man­u­fac­turer for the world mar­ket. Xin­jiang pro­duces China’s best cot­ton, and more of it than any other re­gion. Xin­jiang’s cot­ton har­vest reached 3.5 mil­lion tons, about 60 per­cent of China’s to­tal out­put, in 2015.—Xin­hua